American Pie: Now Is The Summer Of Our Content
"My wife and I are just about halfway through our first “year-round” Florida experience. Until last year we had summered on our boat in Connecticut, but then we sold the boat and committed to being year round residents. So far it’s been better than just tolerable, though we have August ahead of us,'' writes John Merchant.
My wife and I are just about halfway through our first “year-round” Florida experience. Until last year we had summered on our boat in Connecticut, but then we sold the boat and committed to being year round residents. So far it’s been better than just tolerable, though we have August ahead of us.
One way of looking at it is that summer here is like winter up north. People tend to spend more time indoors, and yard work is put off for cooler days. After a while, constant air conditioning goes unnoticed, except when coming in from outdoors. Entering a supermarket is like leaping from the jungle into the Arctic Circle. Eyes run and heads throb, and nobody lingers.
There’s a noticeable difference in the flora and fauna. We’re seeing spectacular blossoming trees that don’t come into bloom until after we would have departed for the north, and the cold-blooded critters are more visible.
Alligators, normally somnolent in the colder weather, are on the move. Snakes, which otherwise have to lie in the sun until their blood warms enough to permit movement, jump right out of their beds, ready to go. Songbirds that greeted our spring mornings are silent, presumably gone north along with the human snowbirds.
Our daily weather is fairly predictable – temperatures in the low 90’s F (30’s C), usually clear mornings with increasing thunderclouds as the afternoon progresses. The storms start in the late afternoon and sometimes go on through part of the night, with very welcome, torrential downpours.
Even though we have a higher rainfall in the summer, the trend in southwest Florida, where we live, has been towards drought for the past several years. Further north, from Tampa to Gainesville, the opposite is true; witness the lush green rolling countryside around Ocala. It’s perhaps not surprising that this is horse country, and home to top breeders, trainers and riders, not to mention the cream of the equine population.
The first time I came to Florida in the summer was for a business trip to Palm Beach in the late 70’s. Back then, the centers for tourism and winter living pretty much closed up at the end of March. I remember that I had difficulty finding a hotel room and anywhere to have dinner. Nowadays, municipalities are very creative in their attempts to extend the season.
Direct flights from Europe, and attractive vacation packages, bring Germans, Scandinavians and the British, all of whom, along with the Canadians, think that 90F is great. If you see anyone lying out in the morning sun at this time of year, you can bet they are from one of those countries.
Aside from economical vacation packages, many leisure destinations have special events to keep or bring back visitors – art festivals, fashion shows and music festivals abound. Disney World in Orlando has reduced-price tickets. Even little old Pine Island, where I used to live, has its Mango Mania Festival to mark the peak of the Mango season harvest. I plan to go this year for the first time, so more later.
In Florida, students of all ages go back to school much earlier than elsewhere. So for them, August really marks the end of summer. Already the stores have “Back to School” sales and specials. Nowadays it seem that no self-respecting kid goes back to school without a bag of electronics.
A “Something - Pad” and a “Something Pod” are basic anymore. Cell (Mobile) phones don’t even rate a mention. Laptop computers and notebooks are reduced to rock-bottom prices. If I believe the advertisements, college students who live in dorms or apartments simply have to have the latest, big screen, high definition TV. It’s far cry from my own experience, when I was lucky to get a new pair of shoes.
All in all, the Florida summer is turning out to be not half bad. It’s almost August, but we’ll still be looking over our shoulders for hurricanes until October. Thus far there have been Brett and Cindy in the Atlantic, and one, Dora in the Pacific, off Mexico. Last year they used up the whole alphabet of names, so we still have a way to go.
There have been two major hurricanes in the six years we’ve lived here, but we were elsewhere at the time, so we only had to deal with the after-effects. Now we are here year round we made a decision to stay put for the next one. Somehow it’s seems a better idea to be in our home, but the actual experience may change our mind for the future.
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